The people who pick your Assam now earn Rs 280 (about US$3.25) for a day's plucking in the Brahmaputra valley and Rs 258 in the Barak valley, after the state raised the minimum daily wage by Rs 30 from April 1.

The Brahmaputra figure is up from Rs 250 and the Barak figure up from Rs 228. The state's Department of Labour Welfare notified the rise on March 7, on a recommendation the Minimum Wages Advisory Board made on February 26. It covers the large estates and the small gardens in both valleys, and reaches more than seven lakh workers (over 700,000; a lakh is the Indian unit for 100,000), the government said.

The state called the figure interim. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said wages would be revised again as the central government's new labour codes take effect, and that the stakeholders would "probably have to sit again in the next six months," after which the daily wage was likely to cross Rs 300, according to Business Standard. In the Brahmaputra valley the wage has risen from Rs 197 before 2021, a gain of more than 40% over five years.

Adivasi worker bodies called the rise inadequate. The All Adivasi Students' Association of Assam, which demanded Rs 551 a day, said the promise to align the wage with the new labour codes was "nothing but a misleading and hollow assurance," its president Rejan Horo said. The Adivasi Youth-Students' Association of Assam, which sought at least Rs 500, said the revision was "contrary to the spirit and objective of the law," its president Nipen Munda said. Horo said even the Rs 351 a day the ruling party promised in its 2016 election manifesto, still unmet, "does not adequately address the economic hardships faced by tea garden workers."

What a worker takes home is a separate figure. Pay is tied to a daily plucking target, around 24 kilograms of leaf at the height of the season, and falling short brings deductions, so the notified wage is a floor that take-home pay can drop below. Assam grows more than half of India's tea, and its gardens support some 6.84 lakh (684,000) workers, EastMojo reported. The state's notified unskilled wage outside the gardens is Rs 345 a day; in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, tea plucking pays Rs 475 and Rs 546.

Sources: Business Standard, "Hike in Assam tea garden workers' daily wage by Rs 30 from Apr 1"; The Sentinel, "Assam Tea Garden Workers to Get Rs 280 Daily Wage in Brahmaputra Valley From April 1"; Outlook Business, "Hike in Assam Tea Garden Workers' Daily Wage by Rs 30 From Apr 1"; The Assam Tribune, "Tea garden bodies slam Assam govt's Rs 30 daily wage hike as inadequate"; EastMojo, "Assam's tea industry at a crossroads: why wages deserve centre stage". Wage figures are the state's notification of March 7, 2026.